Archive for the ‘spring flowers’ Tag

Today was just one of those lazy Sunday afternoons. You know…..the kind of day where you don’t want to do what you’re supposed to do…you just want to do what you want to do. Some would call it lack of motivation. I call it the way a Sunday should be spent!

A light breeze and the rustle of the young leaf canopy above beckoned me to get outdoors to see what was happening in the flower beds and along the edge of the woods. First, I checked on a couple of the shady flower beds that lie at the base of some of the larger trees in the yard. Formerly, about a month ago, they were playing host to a menagerie of daffodils….now a prolific crop of Lily of the Valley, Trillium and a few white violets are happily taking the place of the spent daffodil stalks.

Lily of the Valley was one of my mother’s favorite flowers and whenever I see these, I think of her and how she watched for these to come up each year.

Delicate white bells hide behind curtains of lush green foliage.

And of course the scent is enchanting!

Next up, was a grouping of wild May Apples along the edge of the property. Their large umbrella shaped leaves protect a flower about 2 inches in diameter.

Later in the month, the flower will produce a round yellow fruit, hence the “apple” part of its name. But for now, we see only the flower.

One woodland flower that has fascinated me since childhood is the Jack-in-the-Pulpit. I’m sure I caused the demise of more than a few of these on my childhood walks in the woods, merely due to the number of times I lifted the pulpit’s “flap” in order to inspect Jack! But they are an eternally interesting plant, and one that I see less seldom these days. Perhaps their natural habitat has been reduced. I’m glad they still seem to be happy on my property.

Did you know that there are both male and female Jack-in-the-Pulpit plants? Yes indeed! And did you know that the “Jack” and his “pulpit” is not actually the flower? The actual flower is hidden inside the base of the pulpit, and is extremely small…small enough that you would need a hand lens in order to view it well.

Here’s a view of the pulpit from above. This would have been w-a-a-ay too much temptation for me when I was a child! Today, however, I just photographed it, and Jack was safe!

And guess who I found living among another bed of Lily of the Valley plants!

To round out my tour, was what I think is a form of Spring Beauty, another wildflower.

And last, but not least, a sweet wild white violet, beloved by both my mother and her mother. Small and low-growing, they are easy to miss if you are not looking.

But they are definitely worth looking for. In the language of flowers, a white violet is associated with candor and innocence, but also with the desire to take a chance on happiness.

Taking a chance on happiness….I like that!

We all need to be reminded to do that every so often. Don’t we?

Of course if you are Tabby, our beloved but slightly spoiled 16 year old Himalayan cat, all this talk about walking in the woods leaves her rather nonplussed. She takes her chances on happiness from the comfort of a soft pillow.

Much in need of some sunshine and color, I set out this afternoon on a short jaunt around the back yard to see what I could come across that gave evidence that the long winter was at last vanquished. As my shoes sank slightly with each step on the ground that was still drying out from the snow’s last runoff, I searched for any sign of green…anything poking its head through layers of last Fall’s leaves….clinging to a rock….whatever I could find on this mid-March day. Ahh! I spied a crocus, that welcome harbinger of Spring early bloomers. As I leaned down to take a shot, serendipity arrived on wings….bumblebee wings…..and I took full advantage of it.

My next stop was over to an old garden border where I thought I had seen evidence of another crocus a few days ago. Sure enough, there it was….and fully opened at that. As I pressed the camera shutter a couple of times to capture the beauty of the small flower, I finally noticed that the lovely bloom had a very small visitor who had been sitting on one of the petals the whole time I was shooting! Serendipity? I think so! Take a look…If you know how small a crocus is, you’ll know how small the visitor is too!

The rest of my walk yielded no more winged creatures in my shots, but plenty of evidence that Spring is indeed springing. I vowed from now on to be better at recognizing serendipity when it was staring me in the face!

Here’s hoping you will take a moment to enjoy all the smalls that nature provides in this wonderful season of renewal….